We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Charity Bean a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Charity , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear stories from your time in school/training/etc.
As some may know I have been chasing my goal to become an RN for many years. Since 2014 to be exact. It has not been easy for me at all. I have had many hardships that have come my way while on this journey and at times I wanted to give up, but my heart would not allow it. In 2018 I was accepted into Lutheran School of Nursing. I was a student from January 2018-October 2018. I’d given up so much to be a nursing student and the first few months I was able to maintain my home with my small income but by August of 2018 I was faced with financial burden. I no longer qualified for financial aid due to many years prior of attending school and exacerbating my Pell grant and student loans I could no longer afford school and continue to pay all bills in my household. I tried to continue but the stress of things took its toll on me and when the semester came to an end October 2018, and I was dropped from the program because my score was 77.6%. I needed a 78% to remain in the program. I was completely devastated. I gave up at that point and fell into a deep depression. I turned 30 December 1st, 2018, and I cried the entire day. I couldn’t believe my life had fallen apart like it had. I was alone, miserable, and depressed. I hid it all well in front of my family and friends but inside I truly felt empty and wanted to leave this earth.
Charity , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I took time off and due to depression and financial struggle to try and figure out what I would do would from that point. I was in such a dark place, and I needed a job to support myself and my son. I took a job at the VA John Cochran as a night ward clerk, and I was miserable! My heart, my soul, my passion is mom’s and babies. I cried every other day going to that job. My heart was truly broken. I was simply existing. While working there I began to research becoming a doula. This is where my life began to take a turn around. I searched high and low and finally found Jamaa Birth Village. I met Brittany “Tru” Kellman, CPM and her story relit a fire in me that I thought for sure had burned out for good. I applied for a scholarship for her Fall 2019 doula training, and I won a partial scholarship. I was left with $400.00 to pay out of pocket. With the support of family and friends I came up with the money and November 2019 I began my journey on the road to becoming a doula. From that moment on I was on fire! I studied day and night to truly understand birth and while doing so my life was saved. I put my heart and soul into this work. I learned so much about the history of birth work all the way to ancient times, the grand midwives, the black infant, and maternal mortality rate and how doulas save lives. I began to workday and night to push my doula services. I now have started a better birth outcome program under my non-profit organization “Get You a Doula Sis”! I empower families with birth education, teaching methods of non-pharmacological birth, uniting families and helping save relationships by holding mom and dad support groups. I also hold a yearly event called “The Doula Community Baby Shower”. This event I bring in local small business that can help improve birth cultural. For example, life insurance agents to explain the importance of starting life insurance on our children and ourselves. I have bank representatives to talk about starting savings accounts for babies. We also have personal trainers, chefs, doulas, lactation consultants, OB/GYN’s, and much more. I also began a show with two other doulas in the St. Louis metropolitan area that aired on Real STL News. On the show we discussed the importance of having a doula and what we do to help improve birth. We have started twice monthly walks called “The PPP Walk” (pregnancy, postpartum and pre-menopausal). We use this walk to help pregnant women stay active, postpartum women get out of the house with their babies and walk for exercise as well as network with other moms who they can relate to, and pre-menopausal women so they can help cope with the changes their body is experiencing and share wisdom to others. My favorite of all these things I have begun are my “Mom’s Need Love Too” monthly support groups. This is where women of all ages come and we sit down and truly have a sista circle! There is nothing like support and uplifting from other black women. We sit in a safe and judgment free space that allows us as black women to be black women and speak about our happiness. Sadness, pains, joys, love, and life freely. It began on zoom and has now grown into in person meetings. These meetings are saving the lives of some many women who are fighting battles unseen. I am honored to be able to provide this space for these women to be free. Most importantly not be written off or fear being judged by white physicians or therapist who truly do not understand what it is like to be a black woman in America!
I believe my most proud moment as a doula happened this year when I caught my first baby. Wasn’t the plan but he wanted to make his grand entrance in a hurry and I was right where God intended me to be. I think I shook for 10 mins after because I was in such shock myself.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I am living proof that you should never give up on your dream. Even when every thing life can throw your way tries to stop you never give up. All the things I went through to get to this very point today were worth it. It did not seem like it at the time but now I realize it was God trying to tell me he had another plan for me, and it wasn’t my time to pursue nursing. Now I am back and better than ever. I attend Kaskaskia College in Centralia, IL. I drive 50 mins from my home to attend school. Pandemic and all I kept going. I have no prerequisites to take anymore they are all complete. I have only nursing classes left and my first semester I ended it with a “B”. I couldn’t believe it. The woman who once believed she wasn’t good enough to be a nurse finished with a “B”. It’s my time. I am in better place mentally, spiritually, and emotionally as I head into my second year of nursing school. I work enough to pay my monthly bills, but it gets hard at times. Being a doula and a nursing student don’t go hand and hand well. Especially when I have to study and be a mom to a now high school freshman. I have a son who will be 15 this September. Boy does this kid eat a lot. He’s also a basketball player so I have to balance mom life, work life, school life and the many committees and other projects I have going. Its defiantly a lot on my plate. Now I am one of the most requested doulas in the St. Louis Metropolitan area and I sit on many birth equity committees for the state of Illinois. As well as an Ambassdor for the National Black Doula Association of Atlanta, GA and National Black Nurses Association Mini Nurse Academy Ambassdor.
Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?
Hands down my Doula Training and birth assistant training. I also would say working so close for 6 years at Memorial Hospital East in Shiloh, IL on the LDRP unit. I learned so much from OB’s such as Adriena Beatty, Deborah Carson, Verna Porter, Michael Covlin, Sekou Kelsey, Sylvia Obernuefermann CNM and the amazing nursing staff. They brought the best out of me. I thought I would be an ER nurse. Boy did that change drastically. To this day they laugh at me because I tried to quit and go back to the ER my first 3 months because I thought labor was boring. Lesson learned.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.doulabean.com
- Instagram: doula_bean_BB_advocate
- Facebook: doula bean maternal care, LLC
- Linkedin: Charity Doula Bean
- Twitter: Doula Bean
- Youtube: doula bean
Image Credits
Esther Moore Helfer “queen Esther’s Artistry makeup & photos of me Myself Charity Bean on client photos